New Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory spoke at MIT last week, but some video excerpts have now been posted of his talk, along with the Center for Civic Media’s usual excellent liveblog of the event. A (paraphrased) excerpt:

We’re on the market, the books are going out to interested suitors, and we don’t know what the future holds. We know there’s a lot of interest from the community. There’s been interest locally, and from New York.

I want to talk about the idea that newspapers are dying and that the Globe is in trouble. One of the biggest changes has been the shift in classified ads. The ‘dirty secret’ of newspapers was that classified ads funded most of print journalism. At one point the Globe was one of the most successful papers in the country at getting those ads.

There was one Sunday paper that weighed up to 10 pounds, just filled with classified advertising. The Globe once made 160-180 million dollars a year on these ads. That money has been lost to Monster.com, Craiglist and others and it’s not coming back.